Cylchgronau Cymru

THE RE-ERECTION OF MAEN MADOC, YSTRADFELLTE, BRECONSHIRE. By SIR CYRIL FOX. THE famous monolith known as Maen Madoc1 adjacent to a Roman road-that Sarn Helen which extended northward from Nidum to the Brecon Gaer by way of Coelbren2-has recently fallen, not for the first time in its history. H.M. Office of Works undertook the re-erection of the stone at its own charge, and invited me to supervise the work archaeologically. This was carried out in June, 1940. Maen Madoc "-the Stone of Dervacus the son of Justus-is a rectangular unhewn shaft of Old Red Sandstone measuring 26 X 13 inches at its base and with a maximum length of 11 feet. Surround- ing the stone is a roughly rectangular paving about 9 feet square, of unhewn slabs and boulders, mostly set on edge. A large portion of this platform had been loosened when the stone fell this portion had been dislodged before, for it is mortared, whereas there is no mortar between the stones in the undisturbed portion.3 Removal of the loose stones was first undertaken, and the stone- hole thereunder located. Figure 1 shows the extent of the area examined. The floor on which the platform was laid-a hard clayey subsoil of Old Red Sandstone derivation-was undisturbed, and it was too shallow ever to have accommodated a burial (see Fig. 3b). This is not the IC IACIT of Dervacus While the re-erection of the monument in its hollow was proceeding, a general examination of the site was made. A three-foot trench opened up to the south- west of the platform disclosed a road, 16 feet in breadth, under 9-10 inches of sandy peaty soil which completely obscured it this road was carefully paved with river pebbles and boulders. On both flanks 1 Westwood, Lap. Wall, p. 64 Aileen Fox in Arch. Camb., 1939, pp. 31-2, PI. la. (in the latter paper is a photograph prior to the fall of the stone). Bibliography by V. E. Nash-Williams in Bull. B.C.S., VIII, p. 71. 2 Map in Nash-Williams, The Roman Legionary Fortress at Caerleon, Mon., Nat. Mus. Wales, 1940. 3 A broad arrow incised on the base of the stone suggests that this resetting may have been the work of Ordnance Surveyors.